Rule 5 Warship Sunday – HMS Illustrious

Okay, so it turns out that September will not be the month that I go back to regularly scheduled posting. Oops. But in the meantime, I am trying to get a posting backlog built up, and more or less follow the previously laid out posting schedule. Which means that today’s post is… Rule 5 Sunday (on Monday. Doh!)

Anyway, when we last left Rule 5 posts, I had been introducing Azur Lane, and teased a certain British aircraft carrier as the first subject. And so, without further ado, here’s a short primer on HMS Illustrious.

Illustrious was the lead ship in her class, and was designed from the outset to be better armored than previous carriers. This meant sacrificing some fighter capacity, however, the armored flight deck, hanger deck, and 4.5-inch thick waterline armor belt were credited with saving the ship during operations in the Mediterranean in January 1941. She was also the first carrier in any navy to receive a radar system, a feature which she would put to great use over her long career.

In Azur Lane, Illustrious sometimes comes across as a bit clumsy, with difficulty seeing objects in her path, especially underfoot. In-game, this callsback to both a collision between Illustrious and her sister carrier HMS Formidable which damaged Illustrious’s forward flight deck, and also that later in the war, Illustrious had her speed reduced due to battle damage to her central propeller shaft.

One of the most successful British carriers of World War II, Illustrious participated in operations against Italian, German, and Japanese forces throughout the war. She received frequent improvements to her anti-aircraft armaments, radar, and flight deck lengthening as designers attempted to remedy her shortage of aircraft in any possible way while not compromising her armor.

Illustrious would survive the war and serve as a trial carrier for the Royal Navy for another ten years. From her launch in 1939 to her retirement in 1955, her flight deck saw everything from the last biplane fighters and torpedo bombers of the Fleet Air Arm, to early jets such as the de Havilland Sea Venom and Supermarine 510. Her name would be taken up again in 1982 by the Invincible-class carrier HMS Illustrious, only to be retired again in 2014.